Lifewise
by The Shrapnel
Summary: Oneshot. Etcetera, on the verge of becoming a full adult queen, wonders if everything she's done with her life was all wrong. Implied things and light swearing.


AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello all! Shrapnel here with oneshot to unwind from the stress. My exams are coming up! Boy oh boy am I in trouble.

This oneshot involves Etcetera/Alonzo, because I am a pure _sucker _for unusual pairings.

There is implied femslash and a mention of catnip, but nothing graphic or deserving of an M. Um... enjoy? Hahaha!

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**LIFEWISE

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**

It was a peculiar fact, but the story passed down from one cat to the next was that when the Jellicle Moon came out, it hid away the stars.

These nights where the moon was bright and the stars disappeared were known as Jellicle Nights, and on the coldest of Jellicle Nights the strangest of things happened.

Etcetera, sleepless, pondered this as she curled up tighter on her bed mats. The strangest Jellicle Night, she remembered, was when the tribe sentinels stalked the perimeter of the Yard and found Macavity, cold and bloodied, lifeless on the side of the pavement. The superstitious explanation was Bast had finally come to punish him for his crimes, but rumor told the tale of a final fight between him and an unknown Jellicle.

That was two years ago.

The last Jellicle Night had been a little more uneventful. Skimbleshanks, on a late shift, had nobly tried to save a human child's balloon that had flown out the window from his grasp due to the train speed, but fell onto the trackside rocks. Munkustrap and Admetus had hunted him down when they realized his prolonged absence, and brought him back to the Yard. Slowly the railway tom was healing, but he was forever trapped under brittle bones.

Skimbleshanks was Etcetera's father. While he could no longer walk, he maintained his voice and his constant disapproval for anything that opposed tradition. The old tom could be kind, but only in his best of moods, which rarely came about. Etcetera had her share of complaints for whenever she came over to look after him, but if any arguments arose she would discreetly shoo them away with the goodbye kiss to her father's forehead.

Etcetera hadn't come to visit her father in months. She preferred to feel independent, as she soon would be. At nineteen cat years she was fast approaching full adulthood, though this wasn't necessarily a significant thing. Most queens took mates at sixteen.

Lying on her side, the pale tabby inspected her bluish stripes lining her thin right arm. They were such pretty patterns. She'd blossomed into the striking queen all the elders had prophesied she'd become. The Jellicle Tribe always boasted the beauty of its females. Now, it seemed, she contributed to its pride in some little way of her own.

Tonight was another Jellicle Night. It was the anniversary of Skimbleshanks' accident, and she supposed that the railway tom would want his daughter to be with him. But she was feeling so listless that she couldn't even bother to get up.

Was there _anything _she could say to the elders that wouldn't anger them greatly? It was acknowledged that the pale queen was a slight bit tactless, could be rude if she was irritated. At one point she'd been labeled Kitten Eternal. And how else would an impudent young queen react? She made sure to prove them wrong.

That wasn't going so well.

Etcetera brushed some stray fur away from her eyes, staring at the wall of her den.

There were so many things her father didn't know.

He didn't know that she liked to leave the junkyard often, to explore the darkest alleys and tallest buildings.

He didn't know that she'd already experienced her first time, during a humid August night with an irresistibly reckless Rum Tum Tugger (the morning after was a wordless lick behind his ear and a quiet padding out of his den).

He didn't know that her first kiss wasn't the clumsy and chaste kind, and it wasn't with Quaxo (it was with Electra, during the wondrous chaos of the Jellicle Ball. It was the hard, hurried sort, and from then on the two never spoke a word about it).

He didn't know that whenever she caught Alonzo stealing looks at her, she enjoyed it. Etcetera wanted to reason, he's not being _inappropriate _or anything, father. Besides, to imagine being with that black-and-white storm of a tom sent butterflies through her stomach. He had the poise and wit of a prince, but the rugged mystery of a stray.

Cassandra had even spoken to her about him once, under a warm sun.

"When I was with him, he loved to show off," the dark queen had purred, stretching atop the Tire. "He can be brilliantly funny. In fact, I quite miss him."

"Then why did you leave him?" Etcetera had asked.

"Because I realized my true love was Plato. But that doesn't mean I can't miss Alonzo," the Abyssinian had put on a sly smile, and languidly pawed at Etcetera's head fur to make it look stylishly elegant. "I'm sure you'll catch his eye. Lon has a weakness for the most beautiful of queens."

_skritch skritch skritch_

Etcetera snapped back to alertness as she heard a faint scratching sound. Was it coming from outside?

_skritch skritch skritch skritch_

Electra, her den-mate, had her face buried into Etcetera's shoulder. She groaned as the noise grew louder.

"Cetera, what is that?" she mumbled into the pale queen's fur. Was it coming from outside?

"I'll check, I'll check," replied Etcetera in a whisper. She propped up her elbow and looked around. It was nothing but the dirt walls of the den and her door, made from the lid of a giant paint can, at the side.

Was it coming from outside?

_skritch skritch skritch_

It was a Jellicle Night. Dare she venture out of her home? Etcetera was curious, and cheeky, and tactless, but for all intents and purposes she was _not _a fool.

She was, however, a failure of sorts. A cat approaching the precipice of adulthood would by now have explored her opportunities, taken up a job that assisted the tribe. A feline tribe was a group effort, and everyone was a group member.

Was it coming from outside?

Etcetera was still unemployed. Her peer Victoria could now aid the injured almost as well as Jellylorum, and Jemima had outgrown her shell of wide-eyed kitten and joined the tribe sentinels in nightly patrol. She and Electra preferred to waste their days in idleness, whether or not the elders approved of it. How could they reprimand just the two of them, anyway? Tumblebrutus took to catnip, and Pouncival had long since run away.

_skritch skritch skritch_

Was it coming from outside?

Etcetera rose from her mats. Her fur was unkempt from her toss-and-turning, and her eyes were still clouded with grogginess. She had none of the charms Cassandra had taught her to be equipped with – her head fur brushed just right, her leg turned gracefully. It was just Etcetera, tired and tense.

_skritch skritch skritch skritch_

Was it coming from outside?

It was the coldest of Jellicle Nights. Dare she check who it was at the door?

_skritch skritch_

She did.

Taking her own blanket and laying it carefully over Electra, Etcetera plodded to her lid-door, and pulled it away.

"Good evening, Alonzo."

"Good evening, Etcetera."

"You're out late," observed the pale queen.

"I really, really wanted to see you," Alonzo said outright.

Etcetera stared at the tom. The two of them barely even spoke with each other. All they had to themselves, it seemed, were sideways glances.

"…What?"

"I really wanted to see you."

"Why?"

"I never thought you were one for explanations," replied the patched tom, seeming surprised. "You never seem to give any yourself."

Etcetera raised her eyebrows, not understanding. "What are you talking about?"

"You disappear, all the time. And before anyone asks where you are, presto, you're there again."

"You… notice that?"

"Yes. Well, in a way. Sometimes I look for you when I'm on the car trunk. And I don't see you. I…" the tom trailed off, his dark eyes still on Etcetera. "Maybe I should come back in the morning. After you've rested."

"No, it's alright," Etcetera answered, pushing him slightly so that he would walk away. "We just need to move away. Leck's still sleeping."

Alonzo nodded voicelessly. The two of them began to walk, towards no aim, towards no end.

A twinge of courage grew from within her, and the young queen put up a paw to trace the scar on his cheek, trailing down to his neck.

"This never healed from the fight, did it?"

"Macavity's a bastard. If he was going to lose, he made sure to lose with pride."

"It doesn't matter," Etcetera smiled, feeling lighter. "You're still handsome."

Alonzo put on a smirk. "I never said I wasn't."

Above them, the starless sky was still.

"Why are you here? Why are you here with me?"

Alonzo looked to the ground, as if thinking of an answer. "We both are alone, somewhat. And the best way to be alone is to be alone with someone else."

Etcetera laughed tenderly. "Alone together. That sounds nice."

"I barely know you."

"I barely know _you. _What's the problem?" the pale tabby queen, disarmed of her inhibitions, stopped Alonzo in his place and tiptoed to place a kiss on the beginning of his scar.

"None," the black-and-white tom answered, taking her in his arms. "None at all."

The Jellicle Moon hid away the stars.


End file.
